The Power of Contrast

I took our dog for a walk this morning just before sunrise. As we walked away from our house I looked back and saw the kitchen light was on. I noticed how easy it was to see any activity that was going on inside.

We've all noticed this. It's the power of contrast. The lighted interior of the house stands out against the dark background, calling our attention toward the light. It’s a basic principle of graphic design. When we returned from our walk about a half-hour later, the sun had risen and it was much harder to see inside our house.

Our world, our days, our lives, are a running timeline of multiple inputs, distractions, and messages which we try to organize and assign into meaning. We form stories and try to identify patterns to make sense out of an incomprehensible series of stimuli. We discard inputs we don’t value and add useful ones to our ongoing narrative.

That’s really the ultimate goal of a brand: to give us one simple, recognizable meaning that represents a message that has relevance in our lives. Golden arches = kid’s food. Walmart = low prices. Volvo = safe car. Our challenges as marketers is to offer understandable and simple patterns. Yet it's not so simple.

If everyone is offering value how do we make our value stand out? If everyone is offering quality how do we make our quality stand out?

Enter the power of contrast. I do a lot of public speaking and I’ve noticed the true test of whether I am in command of my audience is whether I can whisper. If I can whisper and they lean forward to hear what I'm saying, I know I have them. The whisper is hard to ignore.

So think about whispering when everyone shouting.

Think about thinking small when everyone else is bragging about how big they are.

Think about being honest and human when everyone else is hiding behind corporate policy.

Think different when others are trying to be better at being like the others.

It may not require a titanic shift your product or service, just in your thinking.

Apple became different by insisting on thinking that way.

Simple, right? But just because it simple doesn't mean it's easy. The kid that goes to school with an electric guitar and spiky green hair stands out, but he also runs the risk of being laughed at.

It works the other way too. Bill Gates was a nerd who was laughed at, but now he's the guy who’s had the last laugh.

Standing out takes courage, but power lies in that contrast. It’s never easy to stand out, but in my experience it’s always been worth it.

#brand #powerofcontrast #standingout